Festive hats, pastels abound at NYC Easter parade

Dressed for the occasion, Karen Zandri, foreground left, and her daughter Paige Capala, foreground right, pose for photographs as they take part in the Easter Parade along New York's Fifth Avenue, Sunday, April 20, 2014.

NEW YORK — Most New Yorkers showed their best colors in the annual Easter Parade on Fifth Avenue, but a few may have dusted off their Halloween outfits.

One man — a Long Island lawyer — smoked a carrot, wrapped around a cigar, with carrot greens hanging from his jacket pockets Sunday.

And there were lots of bonnets piled high with bunny ears or eggs — made of silicone, polyester and felt.

The city's Easter weekend started Friday when New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan — bearing a wooden cross — led thousands of faithful across the Brooklyn Bridge.

The tradition of the New York parade began in the 1880s as a strolling display of Easter finery.